Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that 5G services have been launched in 50 Indian cities within the span of two months. “Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have started providing 5G services in the country from 01.10.2022 onwards and as of 26.11.2022, 5G services have started in 50 towns,” he said. He said this in a written reply to Lok Sabha about the 5G rollout in the country.
In India, only two telecom operators are offering 5G services- Reliance Jio and Airtel. Both operators are planning to launch 5G Pan India by 2024.
Airtel 5G is currently available in as many as 12 cities -
- Delhi
- Siliguri
- Bengaluru
- Hyderabad
- Varanasi
- Mumbai
- Nagpur
- Chennai
- Gurugram
- Panipat
- Guwahati
- Patna
Jio 5G is available in 50 cities-
- Delhi NCR
- Mumbai
- Varanasi
- Kolkata
- Bengaluru
- Hyderabad
- Chennai
- Nathdwara
- Pune
- Gurugram
- Noida
- Ghaziabad
- Faridabad
- And in all 33-district headquarters of Gujarat.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) and BSNL haven’t started their 5G services. On Friday, Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that state-run BSNL's 4G technology will be upgraded to 5G in the next 5-7 months. The service will be rolled out across 1.35 lakh telecom towers the company has across the country.
The communications minister in his answer also said that Telecom Service Providers have reported that they are presently providing 5G services to their subscribers with 5G-enabled devices at no extra cost.
He said also said that as per the Notice Inviting Application for auction of access spectrum and license conditions, the minimum rollout obligations are required to be met over a period of five years in a phased manner from the date of allocation of spectrum. Further expansion of mobile networks beyond the mandatory rollout obligations depends upon the techno-commercial considerations of the TSPs.